I launched my cozy mystery novella, Willful Obsession: A Lake Waluga Mystery, on August 7. A couple of weeks later, after a few reviews, I ran a free ebook promotion, which resulted in 350 orders, and at one point, a ranking of #5 in a particular Amazon category. Will this help future sales? Will this translate into future sales?
Short answer: I dunno
Let’s analyze my experience with a KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) free promo.
Setting the plate
For starters, an author needs to be in KDP Select (for 90 days), meaning I’m not selling the book anywhere else, in order to run a free promo with Kindle. Before the promo, I made sure that I had at least five reviews (I had eight, three of them written). Additionally, I chose to run the giveaway right before a holiday weekend (Thursday through Saturday of Labor Day weekend). Before the sale, my novella ranked 104,000 overall and #1,716 in Cozy Animal Industry. It seemed impossible that organic reach would work.
Downloads came fast and furious
For my 3-day promotion, this is how it broke down:
August 28: 162 orders
August 29: 68 orders
August 30: 110 orders
August 31: 10 orders
(I believe that the 8/31/25 orders were a late batch from foreign countries.)
What was my goal?
For me, my goal was to get read and create visibility. Before the sale, I had 21 orders, mostly from acquaintances. I was hoping the promotion would lead to, say, maybe 50-100 orders, at most. I got 350 orders!
How did that happen? I suspected I was on some website somewhere that was driving people to “free cozy mysteries of the day,” but I could never prove that. By the way, my goal changed during the promotion (more on this below).
Disappointing fallout
Early in the promotion, I got what I believe was my first review from a stranger who downloaded the book for free: a two-star review on Goodreads. This devastated me. Really? You downloaded my book for free, presumably read it, and then told the world, “It was just okay.” Thankfully, the woman from UK (the country I love most after my own), didn’t explain why she didn’t like it. I had to walk this one off. It shook me to the core and made me question all the praise I had received from friends. Maybe my novella, a year of my writing life, wasn’t any good. Or maybe my writing style just wasn’t her cup of tea. I’ll never know.
Unexpected delight
I read somewhere that achieving a ranking of 1,000 or higher in a category will give you organic reach on Amazon. About ten days before the promo, I took a risk and edited all my keywords and categories. The risk was, as this excellent and gracious video explains, after making changes like that, you will at first drop in the overall and category-specific ranks. True! Thankfully, Dave Chesson explained this because the precipitous drop unnerved me. Before the changes, my sales rank was 124,000; after the changes, I dropped to 622,000. Yikes!
Days later, the algorithm started doing its thing. Even though my overall rank was high, at last I reached a category rank of below 1,000. This, supposedly, would achieve organic reach, and I believe it does.
The highest peak
I reached the highest status on the second day of the free promo:
Seller rank: 736
Category – Cozy crafts hobby mystery: 5
Category – Cozy animal mystery: 16
Category – Women sleuths: 50
This excited me, BUT I knew it was fleeting.
Splash of cold water
To keep my feet on the ground with a rank of 5th in “Best Sellers in Cozy Crafts & Hobbies Mysteries Top 100 Free,” I reminded myself the rankings were temporary. And I had only made $9.00 in total sales so far since publishing.
However, three hundred-fifty people, who I don’t know, downloaded my book, and that exposure warmed my heart.
But will they read it? Will they finish it? Will they take the time to give it review stars? Best of all, will they give a favorable written review?
I reminded myself continually that people were taking advantage of FREE. They weren’t likely in KindleUnlimited (because my novella is free there anyway). Importantly, I reminded myself, THEY HAVE NOT YET READ THE BOOK YET. This feels like a castle in the sand. Three things were at work: the free price, the eight five-star reviews, and my categories/keywords, which all provided a good perfect storm.
And I wondered what would happen the morning after the sale was over. Before I get to that, let’s talk about how important goals are.
Goals work
As I said above, my original hope was for 50-100 downloads. When I saw that orders on the first day blew that goal out of the water, I raised my expectations. Arbitrarily, I wished for 300 total orders by the end of the promotion. On the second day, orders dropped 58% (from 162 to 68). Still wanting to reach 300 orders, I ramped-up the social media.
I created Instagram carousels and reels and posted videos to YouTube and my website. I even made a soft plea in my Instagram story by admitting, as I neared the end of the promotion, that I only needed 20 more orders to make my 300-order goal. (I didn’t realize at the time that KDP doesn’t post orders real-time, and I suspect that foreign orders belatedly come in via batches.)
On Threads, in the Author thread, I posted a tongue-in-cheek comment: “Does a watched KDP dashboard not get orders? (So close to 300 orders for my free promo.)” I got one download this way.
Then I did some errands and brought my book’s business card with me. On the front of the card is my book cover; on the back of the card is my one-sentence explanation of the plot, website address, Amazon short link, and Amazon QR code. By chatting with a woman in the bird supply shop and the card shop, I believe I got two more downloads.
Where do orders/sales come from? EVERYWHERE. Now let’s talk about what happens after the promo.
The morning after
As expected, my seller rank and category ranks plummeted:
Seller rank: 156,440
Category – Cozy crafts and hobbies mystery: 883
Category – Cozy animal mystery: 2,604
Category – Cozy animal mysteries: 3,839
At least I was in the “higher than 1,000 range” rank on the first category. (Seven hours later, I was over 1,000.)
Bottom line
I want to be clear-eyed about what’s been achieved here: 350 orders/downloads in three days. That’s worthy of a celebration.
I confirmed that Instagram is my most successful social media platform. Pinterest is my worse platform. Threads is worthy of more attention, and there’s lots of support for authors there.
Potentially, I’ve created a foundation for receiving more reviews. The rule of thumb is one to three reviews per 100 downloads, less for freebies. Deplorable, I know. (And the risk of a meh review.)
What’s next?
There is the hope of more positive reviews. (BTW, there’s a delay in those getting posted, like days from my experience. Moreover, if people create new Amazon accounts to purchase the Kindle download, they must spend $50 on Amazon before their review will get posted.)
The most exciting decision made from this venture is my decision to create a print version of this novella. Except for the cost of hiring the book cover designer to create a spine and back cover, there’s little downside.
I’ve already contracted to have a professional review, which I’ll receive in two weeks. There’s a risk of a low-star review and the hope of a high-star review. You can add quotes from the review to the Amazon sales page and the back cover of the printed book.
I’ve begun plotting a sequel to Willful Obsession. Marketing a published work is draining and distracting from the writing process. Ultimately, I hope to have a trilogy. Research shows that if you have a backlist (other books), free promos are much more successful as an integral part of the marketing funnel.
What has been your experience with a KDP free promotion? Does this post make you want to do one more or less?
Kristy Schnabel 
Leave a comment